Cayetano asks Poe to reopen Senate probe on Mamasapano incident

Thursday’s (Feb 12, 2015) Senate hearing on the Mamasapano clash (Photo courtesy of Sen. Grace Poe’s Facebook page)

MANILA — Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano has asked Senator Grace Poe to reopen the Senate inquiry into the Mamasapano incident amid the seemingly conflicting findings of various investigating bodies on the case.

Cayetano expressed dismay over the Office of the Ombudsman’s recommendation to file charges against the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (SAF) junior officers but no mention of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters who engaged the SAF members in an 11-hour firefight that left 44 SAF members dead last Jan. 25.

”I’m saddened and dismayed that our valiant SAF junior officers have been recommended to be charged while not even one MILF fighter was recommended to be charged,” Cayetano said in his letter dated July 23 to Poe, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs.

”Is it not the height of injustice and callousness where the victims instead of the perpetrators of this massacre are the ones being blamed and persecuted?

Is this not an insult to the heroics sacrifice of our valiant 44?” Cayetano added.

Cayetano said the Senate has the responsibility to fulfill its role as the people’s bastion of truth and justice.

”Thus, I would like to ask you and your committee to reopen the Mamasapano investigation in the light of these new developments,” Cayetano said.

”The Office of the Ombudsman recommended the filing of charges against former PNP Police Chief Alan Purisima, former SAF Chief Getulio Napenas, and Supt. Fernando Mendez Jr., who will be facing grave misconduct and violation of Section 3A of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Police Chief Supt. Noli Talino, Sr. Supts. Richard De La Rosa, Edgar Monsalve, Abraham Abayari, Raymund Train, Michael John Mangahis and Rey Arino, and Sr. Insp. Recaredo Marasigan are also being charged with the same cases.

Cayetano said the recommendation to file charges against the SAF junior officers will have a chilling effect on the entire police chain of command.

“The Senate committee, once and for all, should set out to reveal the entire truth behind this gruesome massacre,” he said.

Cayetano also expressed dismay over the conflicting reports released regarding the incident, including reports from the Department of Justice, Philippine National Police Board of Inquiry, Armed Forces of the Philippines and the MILF.

Cayetano admitted that he signed Poe’s committee report on the Mamasapano investigation, but “with reservation and strong recommendation to continue the Senate investigation.”

The “Oplan Exodus” was carried out to arrest international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and his Filipino companion Basit Usman.

Marwan, a Malaysian bomb expert and prime suspect in the deadly 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia, was killed in the operation that also left 44 SAF members, 17 MILF fighters and five civilians dead.